HOFC Sermon Archive: Serving the Lord Part 8: Serving the Lord in our Job

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SERMON TIMELINE

1. Introduction to Serving

2. Serving the Lord through our Faith

3. Serving the Lord through our Relationships

4. Serving the Lord through our Marriage

5. Serving the Lord through our Family

6. Serving the Lord in our Home

7. Serving the Lord with our Friends

8. Serving the Lord in our Job

INTRODUCTION

Today is Resurrection Sunday. April 7^th, 2024

We have concluded the Holy Week, beginning with Passover and Palm Sunday, which brought us to the Good Friday community service we participated in with the Iosco Ministerial Association, which was hosted this year by Tawas Methodist Church, and finally, Resurrection Sunday, which is the literal beginning of the New Covenant purchased in Christ’s blood.

Some say Christianity itself began on Resurrection Sunday. However, I prefer that Christ laid the groundwork for the following 40 days after His resurrection. Christianity started on the Day of Pentecost when the Father in heaven gave the promise, the Holy Spirit, to His people. Without the Holy Spirit, you would not be a Christian.

Both are figuratively true. You could even include the cross itself, without which there would have been no substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of humanity.

We now return to our series, looking at the various ways we can serve the Lord in our lives. We spoke about serving the Lord first by having the right relationship with Him and our relationships with others. We also spoke about how we serve the Lord in our marriages, which, if it is possible to serve the Lord in these manners, then it is also possible to betray the Lord in these areas.

It is a sobering thought when you put it into perspective like that, but I assure you, every opportunity to serve the Lord is also the opportunity to betray Him.

After marriage, we talked about serving the Lord in our families, homes, and friends before breaking for Holy Week.

Today, we return to our series on serving the Lord and will look at how we can serve the Lord where we work.

For most men, our brains work by compartmentalizing our lives. We have an innate ability to keep family, work, and other things separate. When overwhelmed, some men will spill over into other areas of their lives. We have all worked with the guy who had troubles at home and brought them to work, or, perhaps, lived in a house where a lousy work environment was brought home by the father.

But we must not spend time while we are at work ignoring our life mission, which is serving the Lord. We should never take the God-given ability to keep parts of our stressful lives from negatively affecting other parts of our lives to keep Jesus out of those compartments.

I suggest that by making the Lord the main compartment in our hearts and minds, all others will fit neatly within it.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:26-40

We have all heard the saying, “Serve the Lord where you are,” many times, we imagine this speaks of your spiritual maturity. I believe it also speaks of your physical location.

Our workplace is just one of the mission fields in our lives, and our daily tasks can be acts of service to the Lord.

One of the things I always told my kids as they grew up and came to work outside the home.

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily [LIT: from the soul], as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. [you] Serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24

I. WORK WITH EXCELLENCE

a. God created us to work

i. “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:27-28

ii. Have dominion over literally means to maintain, be sovereign over, and take care of.

iii. Do I believe we have a God-given command to care for the earth and all the creatures thereof?

1. Yes. However, that doesn’t mean I agree with the politicized use of preservation to control nature and its resources by overlords who then sell the use back to the people or fine them for not paying dues, which is another issue about the abuse of power.

iv. God created us to work, and anyone who has worked on something or completed a task after much effort has experienced the reward of accomplishment because it is in our nature to work.

What happens when people don’t have work to do? We experienced this during COVID-19.

Some studies suggest COVID itself was causing some of the reported mental health issues, but the fact is, we saw many of the same problems during other pandemics.

Back in the day, we called it cabin fever. Locked up for long periods with nothing to do breaks us mentally.

We NEED to work.

b. Whatever you do, do it from your soul.

i. Other than being a command from Jesus on how we are to serve under our bosses, this instruction from Colossians 3 also has many side benefits.

ii. You will find favor at your place of employment.

iii. If you have worked a lot, you have personal experience with low-quality employees. Not everyone is a “keeper.”

1. We call him KITKAT because he’s always taking a break.

2. We call him motion light because he only works when someone walks by.

3. We call her E.T. because she always wants to go home.

iv. When you work as if working for the Lord, you are honest, hard-working, obedient, thorough, and on time, and your excellence in your job honors God and sets a positive example for others.

c. Your reward is from the Lord, though you may receive favor

i. We work in this manner because the Lord commands it, and as far as reward, we know our true reward is in heaven, where our service is storing up treasures for us.

ii. Sometimes, you will receive favor on earth, and that’s OK, too. But that is not our motivation; otherwise, when you don’t receive your perceived earthly reward, you may convince yourself to stop working as you ought.

iii. Remember, earlier, I stated that for every opportunity to serve the Lord, there is also the opportunity to betray Him.

1. People, knowing you claim to be Christian, are watching you. If you behave in an ungodly manner, you are betraying Christ's teachings and the way in which you are supposed to be the salt and light of the world for His name.

iv. To the world around us, we are the Bible, Christianity, the Church, the representative and ambassador for the Kingdom, and we must act like it.

This brings me to the next point: when we serve with integrity, we serve the Lord.

Integrity is not how you act when or because someone is watching but how you live your life. The way you are when no one else is around but you and God.

Because God is always around.

II. SERVE WITH INTEGRITY

a. Honest and ethical

i. Proverbs 11:3a “The integrity of the upright will lead them,”

ii. What we say and do are essential in so many ways

iii. Our work performance is a testimony of our faith in Christ.

iv. You will lead people either toward the Lord or away from Him.

b. How integrity can be demonstrated

i. You can show integrity in many ways.

ii. Refusing to participate in gossip or slander of others, being truthful in reports and work, giving 100%, even on days you don’t want to be there.

c. Integrity reflects God’s character.

i. When you reflect God’s character, you will build trust with your coworkers and bosses.

ii. However, you do not do this for their approval or love. You don’t live with integrity because of who they are but because of who God is and who God wants you to be.

III. SHARE YOUR FAITH THROUGH ACTIONS

a. Actions speak volumes over words.

i. I Corinthians 13 tells us that biblical love is sacrificial action, not feelings and emotions.

ii. Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

iii. Be the reason someone wants to learn more about the Lord.

b. Sacrificial action is love; actions matter

i. There are many opportunities at work to demonstrate Christian values as well.

ILLUSTRATION

I’ve worked in a few manufacturing plants in my life. Once, a very large and important order was needed for a particular car in high demand.

This car had a series of chrome-plated panels on the sides of the vehicle. In case you do not know, the metal formed by presses to be chromed must be perfect and without blemish because the chroming process reveals every imperfection.

I was to inspect a shipment before it left the plant, and I found a repeated defect among all the parts I checked. After informing my supervisor, I was instructed to sign off on the shipment and send the thousands of parts anyway because they had a quota to meet.

I refused. In fact, I told the supervisor that if he was so confident about the quality of the parts, he should put his signature on the sign-off sheet. I refused to sign something stating the parts were “perfect.”

He left angry, and I thought I might lose my job over it, but I could not with clear conscious sign-off.

He returned with someone who signed off on the shipment without inspecting a single part. He never spoke of it again.

A few weeks later, there was a layoff. Although I had only worked there briefly, compared to dozens of others with years of experience, that supervisor asked me to stay.

He then moved me to the coveted tooling department, where he taught me how to set dies in the presses and calibrate them.

Integrity is tricky when you think you may lose something you need, such as income. However, by placing integrity before all else, you keep your character and the character of Christianity and speak a witness that cannot be denied.

It doesn’t always work out like this. I have more stories about integrity getting me in trouble as well. However, I did not do this “for” any reason other than trying to show integrity in my life.

c. Your action plants seeds of faith

i. Do what is right regardless of the perceived cost.

ii. Because if you allow the perceived cost to dictate your integrity, then your integrity is worthless because it has a price you may or may not be willing to pay.

CONCLUSION

In this world today, we see integrity sold for an acting role, a record label, an actor or actress trying to “make it” in the industry.

We see politicians sell their integrity for a fistful of dollars.

We serve the Lord in our work environment by showing the true character of God (His spiritual fruits), by our work ethic, working as if working for the Lord, and our integrity, which gains value every time you refuse to sell out.

You are a missionary in your marriage, in your family, in your house, with your friends, and in your job.

Live out your faith, and you will make a difference in this world.

This week, pay attention to your surroundings in your place of work and try to see where you can better serve the Lord in your job.

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